"I can remember when the first pulsars were discovered. I was able to go and sit down and listen to graduate students talking about what their theories, to explain what pulsars really were."
- Vernor Vinge

Compare to the use of hunting robe from Clifford Simak's remarkable 1961 novel Time is the Simplest Thing. I'd also mention the necap from Alan Dean Foster's 2010 novel The Human Blend and the tanglefoot field from Robert Heinlein's 1954 novel The Star Beast.